Tomorrow, the Lobo cross country teams will see their first real action of the year when they head to South Bend, Indiana for the Notre Dame Invitational. For the women, it will be the first step towards defending a national title, which is still awesome to think about. For the men, it will be the first step towards returning to their rightful place as one of the nation’s top teams. Both teams have a lot of new faces, but are filled with talent, which could lead to another eventful year.

One of the lasting images from last year’s national-championship-winning women’s cross country team didn’t actually happen at the national championship. It was at the Mountain Region Championships the week before, where the women knew that they were all but guaranteed to be invited to the NCAA Championships, whether or not they earned an automatic bid, so the goal was to be ready for the following week. The Lobos’ top five runners in the race, Courtney Frerichs, Calli Thackery, Rhona Auckland, Whitney Thornburg, and Molly Renfer, ran together for the whole six kilometers, looking more like a group of friends taking a leisurely jog together than a team trying to win a competitive race. When they all crossed the finish line one after the other, they recorded the 9^th through 13^th-best times of the race and missed winning the event by a single point. It was at that point that I knew I was going to get to see the Lobos win a National Championship.

So what do you do after winning a title? You try to do it again. It’s clearly not going to be easy though, as graduations and injuries have left the team with several holes that they’ll need to fill. Luckily for them, when you have a great program, not only do you have a deep bench, top runners want to join in on the fun. As with previous years, this Lobo team does have some returning talent, but the newcomers are going to be what decides how far this team can go.

Looking at the roster, the big names that are returning are Alice Wright and Calli Thackery, both of whom earned all-American honors last year. Alice is a junior who is not just looking for another team title, but another individual top-5 finish at the NCAA Championships. Calli finished 15^th at the NCAA Championships, which would have made her the best runner for most of the teams that competed. Another all-American, Rhona Auckland, was expected to be back this year, but by the sound of it, she’ll probably miss the whole season with an injury.

With only Alice and Calli returning, the Lobos will need some new faces to step in and help carry the load. Those runners will probably come from the following group (listed in alphabetical order):

• Natasha Bernal, a sophomore from Albuquerque who improved as the season went on last year, even finishing 32^nd in the Mountain Regionals.
• Alex Buck, a talented freshman from Indiana, who placed 8^th overall in the New Balance Nationals Outdoor 5k, which is a national meet for high schoolers.
• Kieran Casey, a junior transfer from the University of Indianapolis, who received all-Region honors for her performance at a NCAA DII Regional.
• Sophie Connor, a senior from England who ran in a couple of meets for the Lobos last year.
• Kathryn Fluehr, a senior transfer from Princeton, who placed 81^st in the NCAA Championships last year.
• Kendall Kelly, a sophomore from Albuquerque who worked her way into the conversation this year with a strong performance at the Lobo Invitational.
• Kyoko Koyama, a junior transfer from Japan who competed for her country in the Aisian Cross Country Championships earlier this year.

Coincidently, most of these runners listed will be competing tomorrow at the Notre Dame Invitational, so we’ll be able to get a better sense of where things stand. There is a lot of talent and a lot of potential in that group, so it feels like all of the pieces are there for the Lobos to be in the hunt for another national title.

On the men’s side, the team is looking like they’ve started to reload after a couple of disappointing seasons. After six straight seasons of making the NCAA Championships and finishing as high as 8^th overall, the Lobos have missed out the last two years. This year, they’re hoping that a flood of newcomers can take them back to the final race of the season.

The main returners are the native New Mexicans Graham Thomas, Zac Castillo, Tyler Potter, and Jesus Mendoza. Thomas, a senior from Dulce, competed in all four races for the Lobos last year, scoring points for the team in each race. Likewise, the junior Castillo competed in all four races, but improved his position in each race, going from 7^th on the team at the beginning of the season to 3^rd by the end. The sophomore Potter and the senior Mendoza competed for the Lobos in multiple events last year, but only scored once for the team, with a 5^th-place team finish in the Mountain regionals.

They’ll be joined by a youth movement this year, with several freshmen looking to secure a spot on the traveling squad. For those who keep up with the program, it’s probably no surprise that most of the newcomers are from either New Mexico, or from Europe. This weekend, we’ll get our first look at how a couple of redshirt freshmen, Alexander Palm and Jared Garcia, perform in a major event. Alexander a decorated runner from Sweden, who has shown the ability to compete at a high level in both mid and long distance runs. Garcia is an all-State cross country and track runner from Belen who had a solid outing at the Lobo Invitational. We’ll also get to see a couple of true freshmen compete, in Emil Danielson and Jacob Simonsen. Emil is one of the best young runners from Sweden and, in my opinion, has the potential to be the top runner for this Lobo team. Not to be outdone, Jacob is a talented runner from Denmark who has already competed in European cross country championships.

This men’s team is young and a little unproven, but if they can live up to their potential, they could find themselves competing in the NCAA Championships this year. Whether they do or not, the future looks as bright as ever for this men’s team.